Canon
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Canon Inc. is a Japanese multinational corporation specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, medical equipment, scanners, printers, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.[1]
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1937 |
| Type | Public |
| Industry | Electronics |
| Official website | https://global.canon/ |
Consumer impact summary
Incidents
Webcam Utility subscription (2025)
- Main article: Requirement for Canon EOS Webcam Utility subscription to enable webcam features on cameras
Canon requires users of their cameras to pay subscription for a software that allows to use it as webcam to its full capabilities.[2]
Camera Connect updates (2025)
- Main article: Canon Camera Connect
After an update the app notified users that they would soon be required to to create an online account which lets Canon access a wide range of user information. Following that, the same app, added a requirement of full access to the user’s photo library in order to transfer photos from the camera.
Lack of Driver Support for Legacy Scanners
Many scanners made by Canon become unusable solely due to them not offering current drivers for many older models that are officially out of warranty/support. This leaves customers who upgrade their operating system without an official path for continuing to use their physically perfectly functional device. It also makes it difficult to buy and use second hand scanners with up-to-date computers.
This can be remedied by using scanning software that communicates directly with the scanner by re-implementing the proprietary Canon protocol without relying on the official Canon drivers. Such software includes VueScan (Windows, macOS and Linux), as well as the SANE scanning subsystem under Linux.